Abstract
This paper examines and analyzes pollution in the Pacific Ocean over the last ten years, and identifies the various sources for the worsening pollution.

Abstract
The writer gives examples of damage done to the country of Ecuador as a result of heavy rains. El Nino battered Ecuador harder than almost any other country. The paper also cites long-term effects of the damage, such as crop destruction and loss of property. The paper then looks at ways in which the country is learning to predict future storms, thereby allowing for preparation.

From the Paper
"The Bermeo family had been driven from their small home and farm, looking for dry ground, unable to get into the overcrowded refugee camps. They had to swim to safety after a food swept through their valley and buried their farm in mud. Their pigs and chicks drowned and the smallest children were saved by climbing into a high tree until a neighbor with a boat rescued them. They said they were afraid of the passing cars and trucks, but more afraid of the water."

Tags:storm, damage, weather, destruction, ocean

Abstract
The paper provides many interesting facts about the planet's oceans: the Pacific, Atlantic, Arctic, Indian, and Antarctic. The paper explains how the Earth's oceans are divided into various regions depending on the biological and physical conditions of the area in which they are located and also explores why the water in the ocean is blue. The paper also notes that the oceans still hold as many mysteries today as they did for the first brave explorers who ventured out into the expansive waters.

From the Paper
"The Earth's oceans are divided into various regions depending on the biological and physical conditions of the area in which it is located. The pelagic zone includes all open ocean regions and is further divided based on light abundance and depth. The photic zone is the area from two-hundred meters down and is the region where photosynthesis most often takes place. It contains the most biodiversity of the ocean. The pelagic part of the photic zone is called the epipelagic and the pelagic part of the aphotic zone is further divided into areas that succeed each other vertically. The uppermost region is the mesopelagic zone and the lowermost is the thermocline of 10 degrees Celsius. Along the top of the abyssal plain is the abyssal pelagic with its lower limits lying at approximately 6,000 meters. The lowest zone, which falls into the oceanic trenches, is the hadalpelagic; it is the deepest of the ocean zones and spans from 6,000 meters to 10,000 meters (Ocean, 2007)."

Tags:water, land, seas

Abstract
This paper explains that the invention of the steam engine, which led to the steamboat and the steam locomotive, began mankind's technological leap forward that continues today. The author points out that, secondary to the invention of the steamboat was the locomotive steam engine, which allowed direct transportation from cities on the Atlantic Ocean to cities on the Pacific Ocean without having to traverse the Cape of Good Hope in the extreme southern hemisphere, making it more affordable to ship goods and farm products. The paper relates that public transportation was not available in the United States until after the Civil War; its availability was responsible for the creation of the suburbs.

Table of Contents
Transportation Prior to the 19th Century
The Steamboat
The Steam Wagon
Conclusion

From the Paper
"How did the invention of the steam engine change the face of American history? The United States was rich in rivers, most especially the Mississippi Rivers that connected the Great Lakes (eventually connected by the Hudson River through the Erie Canal from Chicago to Louisiana. The Louisiana Purchase would have been a poor bargain if it did not include access through the Mississippi and Missouri rivers. Until the steamboat became practical, large river barges were poled by hand and smaller boats such were paddled. Both methods were highly labor intensive and slow. Sailboats were not practical outside of the oceans and Great Lakes. Even then, the vessels were dependent on prevailing winds (or lack thereof)."

Tags:steamboat, steam-locomotive, direct, public, power

Abstract
One of the key players in the establishment of fur trade routes linking the Atlantic ocean with the Pacific and Arctic oceans via a quite complex route through various lakes and rivers of the Canadian shield was Scottish explorer, Alexander Mackenzie. This paper explains how Mackenzie's voyages to the Arctic ocean in 1789 and the Pacific coast in 1792-93 proved to be paramount for the continuation of Westward expansion, and perhaps even more pertinent for the expansion of the fur trade, the major economic means of pre-confederation Canada and a major contributor to Britain's economy. By analyzing Mackenzie's own account of his journeys, as well as other supplementary sources, the paper defines exactly how crucial his two voyages were to all elements of the fur trade and just how extraordinary his journeys were in historical perspective. It explains that the establishment of trade routes to the North and Northwest, establishment of relations with the native tribes along the various waterways, and the discovery of a vast, relatively unexplored territory (unexplored by whites), with much in the way of wildlife and the potential for great wealth and economic prosperity, were all positive aspects in regard to Mackenzie's voyages.

From the Paper
"Alexander Mackenzie was once described, in his younger years, as a man who would take second place to no one whether it be as an explorer or as a fur trader.1 Mackenzie's voyages of 1789 and 1792-93 are conveyed in his journal entries as "strangely unspectacular,"2 quite odd considering the importance of his travels to the well being of the fur trade industry, the chief economic means of British North America at this point in history. In the years prior to his exploration of Northern and Northwestern Canada, Alexander Mackenzie served as an employer to the Northwest fur trading company. Mackenzie, who was young and ambitious at the time, declared his certainty that greater successes for the Northwest company lay in the far West and North of the Canadian territory.3 Mackenzie's only problem lied in company kingpin Simon McTavish whom had a particular dislike for Mackenzie for one reason or another; fueled by his dislike for Mackenzie, McTavish refused to support the young explorer in his wishes to explore the far North and West of Canada. After continuous unsuccessful harboring with McTavish, Mackenzie defected from the Northwest company and found himself employed with rival company, the XY company, with whom Mackenzie expanded with in order to challenge the Northwest company.4 Eventually, after the death of Simon McTavish, the Northwest Company and the XY Company merged in 1787;5 Alexander Mackenzie was stationed at Lake Athabasca, the Company's westernmost post, with fellow explorer and trader, Peter Pond. Both men were determined that great wealth lied in the lands to the North and to the West.6 This determination drove the men to curiosity as to where the Great Slave River running North from Lake Athabasca would lead to. Mackenzie and Pond were also determined to create a continuous trade route linking all three oceans which contained Canada: the Atlantic, the Arctic, and the Pacific.7 Mackenzie's first voyage would be to the Arctic, where he hoped to find a link to the "frozen sea."

Tags:arctic, athabasca, canada, coast, exploration, interior, journey, northwest, ocean, pacific, passage, west

Abstract
This paper stated that President Jefferson commissioned the Lewis and Clark Expedition to do what other explores had failed. The paper describes in detail the actual journey. The paper discusses that Lewis and Clark succeeded in many areas: Opened the U.S. from the Missouri River north to the Pacific Ocean, mapped and described the areas in detail (invaluable to later settlers), discovered many previously unknown species of fauna and established contact the Indians.

Table of Contents
Introduction
Preparations
Up the Missouri
Toward the Pacific
The Return Trip
Importance of the Expedition
Conclusion

From the Paper
"The group traveled in two canoes of a type called pirogues and a 55 foot keelboat, propelled by sail and oars. All summer, they traveled up the Missouri. The days were often hot and muggy and then freezing cold. Mosquitoes tormented them and rain squalls drenched the men and boats. Sand bars slowed their progress. Seldom did the expedition make more than fourteen miles a day. There were some disciplinary problems and two desertions. The only man to die on the expedition succumbed to appendicitis during this time. "

Tags:Missouri, River, exploration

Abstract
This paper examines the Native American tribe of Southern California, the Chumash, one of the few New World peoples who regularly navigated the ocean. The paper points out that they built plank canoes, unlike most other North American native tribes whose canoes were of an unsophisticated hollowed-out tree trunk design. Only Polynesian seafarers from the distant South Pacific were thought to use similar plank boats to explore and colonize the various islands of the Pacific over a thousand or more years ago. The paper draws a possible connection between the two peoples according to both linguistic and archaeological evidence. From a purely linguistic standpoint, the Chumash word for plank canoe, "tomolo", may be derived from the Polynesian word "tumu-raa'au", referring to the wooden plank boats used by Polynesian explorers. The paper concludes that these findings regarding the Chumash wood plank canoe may open the door to seeing Native American culture in a whole new light, and even call into question old orthodoxies about migration patterns.

From the Paper
"Due to the vast size of the area that eventually became known as California, there were at one time or another dozens of small Native American tribes who inhabited the region, differing widely in language, culture and lifestyle, due to the great variety of environmental conditions they found themselves in (desert, mountain, seacoast, etc.) The Chumash are a Native American tribe who historically made their home along the southern coastal regions of California, stretching roughly from the vicinity of what is now Santa Barbara in the north down to Ventura in the south, but (to a lesser degree) even extending as far south as what is now Malibu ("Chumash.") They also lived on the three largest of the Channel Islands: Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, and San Miguel. The Channel Islands, located about 20 miles off the coast near present day Santa Barbara, are the largest offshore islands on the West Coast of North America ("Channel Islands.") This offshore presence was unique to the Chumash among California Indian tribes and will have a central place in the subsequent examination of their seafaring abilities and possible trans-Pacific origins."

Tags:Polynesia, canoe, tomolo, plank, boat

Abstract
This paper explains that the impression that all of Mexico is hot and dry and made up of mostly rural societies is wrong. The writer points out that the countery also contains icy mountain peaks as found in the Sierra Madre systems, lush jungles and agricultural regions as found in the temperate tierra templada and exquisite coastal zones along the Pacific Ocean and Baja California. The author explains that anthropologists have traditionally divided the ethnic categories of Mexico into two categories, the Indian and the Mestizo; today the majority of Mexican society is mestizo, one of the most distinctive sociological elements of Mexico. The paper relates that because of the variety of these topographical and geological regions, vast species of flora and fauna thrive despite the interference of the modern-day world.

From the Paper
"All of the major topographical regions of northern Mexico run north and south and can be viewed as extensions of regions within the southwestern United States. The Sierra Madre Occidental is thus an extension of the Sierra Nevada; the Sierra Madre Oriental which defines the eastern edge of the highlands of northern Mexico is an extension of the Rocky Mountains. The Sierra Madre Oriental runs from the border with Texas south to the northern part of the state of Puebla and although narrower than the Sierra Madre Occidental, it reaches higher altitudes, peaking at over 3,700 meters in the state of Nuevo Leon. In this environment, "animal life is rich and is reminiscent of those biomes elsewhere in the world with similar vegetation characteristics." "

Tags:mestizo, flora, fauna, mountain, ethnic

Abstract
Japan is an island-chain nation located in Eastern Asia, between the North Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Japan, east of the Korean Peninsula. The climate is varied from tropical in the south to cool temperate in the north and resembles that of Eastern North America. This paper discusses the physical and cultural geography of this nation through four of the nine regions (or districts) that Japan is divided into: Hokkaido, Tohoku, Kanto, Chubu, Kinki, Chugoku, Shikoku, Kyushu, and Okinawa. The paper also discusses the supply and demand factors (such as major attractions, transportation, infrastructure), and other attributes to the tourism world (issues and impacts, such as natural disasters).

From the Paper
"These attractions are obviously not targeted to mass tourist activity. I would call them a combination of nature-based tourism, alternative and special interest tourism attractions, except for the Winter Olympics of course. The Olympics definitely had a positive impact on the region's market share - providing special interest activities to a mass of tourists will increase profit and open up new possibilities for the deferred demand without negatively impacting the region's character in the long run."

Tags:tokyo, climate, volcanoes

Abstract
The paper discusses the factors that govern the present and likely future dynamics affecting the Asia-Pacific region. The paper relates the history of America's relationship with Japan, the rise of China, the North Korean military threat, the global war on terror, piracy and the potential melting of the Arctic ocean. The paper considers a range of policy options that will ensure the Asia-Pacific security framework is maintained. The paper includes several maps and an interview with a professor.

Outline:
Historical Perspective
The China Factor
The North Korean Conundrum
The Global War on Terror
Piracy and SLOC Security
The Polar Great Game
A Concert of Democracies
Policy Options for U.S.-Japan Security Alliance in the Asia Pacific

From the Paper
"America has shared a bittersweet relationship with Japan since the colonial days. "In 1853, Commodore Matthew Perry aboard the battleship Mississippi arrived in Uraga, Edo Bay, demanding the opening of trade." The symbolism of the incident was not lost on the Japanese who had taken note of the carving up of China into 'Spheres of Influence' by the colonial powers and decided to sign a Treaty of Peace and Amity with the United States and then with other Western powers. Thus, an uneasy peace prevailed which continued until the U.S. declared an economic boycott of Japan in the 1930s to protect its interests in China "leading to Pearl harbor" . Japan's defeat in the Second World War led to its reinvention in the American mold with a pacifist constitution, 'Made in America' with strict stipulations on its adherence. According to the basic principles of that constitution, Japan fore swore resort to war, gave up the right to have armed forces and agreed to follow the tenets of peaceful existence in exchange for a security guarantee by the United States."

Tags:China, piracy, North, Korea, Russia, Taiwan, oil, Arctic, ocean